muesli's Blog

Once you're leaving Germany and living somewhere else, esp. in some metropolis, you start noticing all the weird things and stereotypes about living in some smaller german city.

Today is sunday, but I totally don't feel like sunday. Usually the word sunday comes along with sadness, boredom and bellyache (mostly due to the fact, that you were drinking on saturday). Streets are empty, stores are closed and people act weird. Well, that has changed now. I strolled down Whitechapel Road this morning, looking for some breakfast and just couldn't believe it's really sunday. All the stores were open, people were in a holiday-mood and the world seemed sunny & beautiful. For some reason I ended up having my breakfast in a BurgerKing - I guess some things never change.

The size of London. It's almost 30 times bigger than the city I come from. A third of London is parks and greens. Which renders Augsburg to a size of 1/10 of London's parks. You really do notice this, when you're entering Hyde Park, surrounded by skyscrapers on the one and Buckingham Palace on the other side - in the middle of the city. It's beautiful there: Lots of green, people are tanning, talking, listening to music, playing soccer or go skating. Heck, there's even a little sea in this park... but it takes ages to walk through it. Better be prepared

Great news: It is possible to have public transports working 24/7. Not all of them, of course. But there's always a way to get home. Anytime. Then again, it can always happen that a tube station is suddenly closed down for construction work over the weekend. Which is probably okay, if you keep in mind that 2.7 million passengers are transported daily with the London Underground tube only. Operating and administrating the tube lines costs 250.000 Pounds (370.000 Euros) per day.

Two London myths: 1. No, it doesn't rain all the time. Infact it seems to rain less than in Germany. 2. Yes, there are quite a few clubs and pubs where you can get drinks and beer past eleven.

Cheers,
Muesli